UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

Workhouse Visiting Society

History

It was founded by Louisa Twining in 1858 “to promote the moral and spiritual improvement of workhouse inmates” (The English Church Union Kalendar, 1863), though it also campaigned vigorously for practical improvements in their education and health

It organised a system of visiting and practical help for workhouse inmates throughout England and Ireland: “The Workhouse Visiting Society had a comparatively short life, but it left behind a habit of workhouse visiting which spread into the provinces”(M. A. Crowther, The Workhouse System, 1834–1929: The History of an English Social Institution, 1981)

What was reforming about it?

It was a sustained and systematic onslaught on the conditions in workhouses by middle-class women